


An old promise

by vindoletta



Category: Starship Promise (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 10:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16871338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vindoletta/pseuds/vindoletta
Summary: Fic created for Tumblr's Atlas Appreciation Week 2018, combining the prompts "childhood friends" and "promise". Atlas is an ordinary colony boy, feeling lost with no purpose, but a chance encounter makes him consider new possibilities.





	An old promise

**Author's Note:**

> Please bear in mind that 1. English is not my native language, and this hasn’t been beta’ed, so there may be mistakes (I’d appreciate it if someone pointed them to me), and 2. It’s an AU (Alternate Universe) where Atlas is around 17 years old, still naive, idealistic and doesn’t mind expressing his feelings as much, so if he feels OOC that’s the reason. 
> 
> MC: Mary Connors

Atlas walked to the fountain and sat in a bench, waiting. He had agreed to meet his friends in the park to go see a movie and maybe grab a bite to eat afterwards. It was a bit too early, but he liked to arrive in advance. They’d probably have to wait for Jaxon anyways, since he always arrived “fashionably late”, as he liked to say, which meant ten minutes past the agreed time at best.

He was about to reach for the sketchbook he always carried in the pocket of his jacket when his gaze fell on a little kid a bit further away, no older than four or five. He recognized her. It was Mary Connors, the daughter of his neighbors. Her parents were engineers at one of the Union labs, and Atlas would sometimes babysit her when they worked overtime.

He looked around, but he didn’t see any other adult with her. Was she really by herself? Her parents should be here soon, right?

Atlas tried to ignore it, telling himself it was none of his concern, but minutes ticked by and they were nowhere to be seen. He was getting more and more irritated. Where were they? That was so irresponsible! What if something happened to her? Sure, colonies had a low crime rate, plus due to the high abortion and infant mortality rates children were considered nothing short of a small miracle – but even so, why did they left such a small kid all alone?

Was he really going to have to babysit her on his free time too? No. No way. He refused. He was going to go to the movies with the others as planned, have a good time, and what happened to her wasn’t his problem.

But… she’d be alone and unsupervised in a park full of strangers.

…  _ugh. Why does this happen to me?_

On an impulse, he got up, walking towards her. He called out to her when he was close to the bench she was sitting in.

“Hello, Mary. What are you doing here all alone?”

The little girl looked up from the spider toy in her hands, surprised. The next thing he felt was a pair of little arms hugging his legs and almost making him fall to the ground. “Atlas!”

“Oof! I’m happy to see you too, midget.”

She pulled back, pouting. “I’m not a mi – mee – what you just said!”

“Yeah? Hmm, well, I don’t know… you’re so small. Are you eating all your vegetables?”

She looked guilty and shifted uncomfortably at that. Atlas bit back a laugh, keeping his face neutral.

“I-I am! I almost ate all the synthetic meat today at lunch too. Plus, Esmie and Nabilah from school are shorter than me!”

“Okay, okay”, Atlas conceded, trying to placate her. He put a hand to his chest and crouched down to her eye level. “I’m very, very sorry, princess. Will you forgive me?”

Mary studied his face before nodding. “Thank you”, he said. Staying crouched, he repeated his previous question. “What are you doing all by yourself here? Aren’t you with your parents?”

“I am with daddy! We went shopping, and our feet hurt, and then he told me to sit and wait here while he was going to buy ice cream, and then we can go home!”

Okay, so she was with one of them. Good. Atlas had met Mr Connors briefly before, and although he was kind of scatterbrained he was a very competent engineer. 

Mary tugged at Atlas’ hand towards the bench she was sitting on before, babbling excitedly about what she had done today, while he made “aah” and “ooh” noises, distracted. “ – And then the nice lady gave me candy! I don’t know why people were being mean to her, I think her blue hair was reeeally pretty –”

Atlas looked at the clock installed in one of the tallest buildings. The others would be here any minute now, but there was no sign of Mr Connors. No matter how distracted he could be at times, he wouldn’t forget about his daughter… right?

“ – What we want to be when we grow up, and I want to be an engineer, like mommy and daddy! I went to the place they work and there are lots of cool things, but I couldn’t play with them. They said only people who work there can. What do you want to be when you’re older, Atlas?”

The question snapped him out of his thoughts. It was something that was a lot on his mind lately, although he didn’t have a clear answer yet. Whatever he decided, it’d probably involve working for the Union. There wasn’t many other options on a colony.

“Hmm… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll be an engineer too”, he replied.

“No fair! I said it first, you have to choose something else!”

That baffled him. “What? Why?”

“Because I don’t want to get married to you! You are weird, you speak old words, and you smell bad”.

“Why would I –” he paused, suddenly understanding. He bent over himself laughing, which made her scowl.

“See? I’m right!”

Once he calmed down, he ruffled her hair. “Oh, Mary. Not all people who have the same job and work together end up married like your parents, you know.”

“No?”

“No.”

She considered it for a long moment, her head tilted. “Then…” she chewed on her lip. “I’m sorry I said you smelled bad”.

He frowned a little at that, before shaking his head. Better to change the topic.

“Well, maybe I’ll be a starship pilot instead. Then I’ll be able to travel to other colonies and planets, see other worlds for myself, and protect the citizens of the Union.” He had never considered the possibility seriously – he was still clinging to his dream of becoming an artist – but being a pilot didn’t sound so bad now that he said it, actually.

Mary tugged excitedly at the sleeve of his jacket. “Really!? You have to promise to take me in your ship to see the stars! I’ve always wanted to see them! Pleasepleaseplease?”

He always wanted to see them also. He wondered how that would feel – laying under a black, starry sky, seeing all the constellations he was taught to recognize sprawled above. The colony simulated artificial day and night, but the lightning never dimmed enough to actually see them.

She was still grabbing his jacket, looking at him with bright, wide eyes.  _Aw, hell._  “Okay, okay, stop stretching the sleeve of my jacket. I promise – but only if you eat everything from now on. You have to grow up and be a little older before you can board a starship.”

“Even the synthetic meat?” She wrinked her nose at the thought.

He nodded, trying to keep a very serious and very strict face, although the corners of his lips curved upwards an inch. “Especially the synthetic meat”.

She looked crestfallen, so he tried to cheer her up. “If you eat everything and grow up, you can become my ship’s engineer. I’ll let you tinker with it once you go on board.”

That caught her interest. “So then you’ll let me play with screwdrivers like mom and dad do? They don’t let me because they say it’s dangerous, but they play with them all the time.”

Atlas shrugged, smiling. “Sure thing, princess. That’s why you have to grow up first.”

“Yay!!” Mary beamed, sitting up in the bench and flailing her arms excitedly. She then stopped for a second, before hopping off, running at full speed towards an approaching figure.

“Daddy!! Dad, I’m going to go see the stars with Atlas! He said he was going to be a pilot and he’s taking me on his ship when I’m older! I’m going to be his ship’s engineer and then I can fix it when it breaks!”

“What?” Mr Connors was alarmed, before noticing Atlas. “Oh! I know you. You’re Molniya’s oldest son. Atticus, right?”

“Er – it’s Atlas”, he said, shaking hands with him.

“Atlas, right, sorry. I’m not very good at remembering names. Were you also taking a stroll through the park?”

“No, sir, I was waiting for my friends. Actually, I think I see them.” Orion and Nova were standing by the fountain, looking in his direction. Even Jaxon was there, early for once.

“Oh, okay. I don’t want to take up your time. Thank you so much for taking care of Mary while I was gone”.

Atlas resisted the urge to roll his eyes at him. He wouldn’t have needed to take care of her on his free time if Mr Connors had taken the kid with him, like parents did. It was a parent thing to do.

_Be polite. Stretch your mouth muscles. Don’t show teeth. Do not start questioning his decisions as a father._

_…Crap. This is probably the fakest, lamest smile of my life._

“It was nothing, sir”. Atlas crouched down. “Bye, Mary. It was nice to see you.”

To his surprise, she hugged him. “Don’t forget – you have to take me to see the stars! You promised!”

He hugged her back tightly. “I won’t.”

Atlas waved goodbye to daughter and father, then walked back to the fountain to where the trio was waiting. Orion had his arms crossed, but he didn’t look impatient, just bored. Nova was as serene as always, but Jaxon had a sly smile on his face.

“Well, look at that. Who knew that big grump Atlas was such a softie?”

Atlas glared at him, which only made Jaxon grin. “She’s my neighbor’s daughter. I was just looking after her because her father went up and left her all alone.”

“You’re pretty good with kids.” The boy in blue smiled, amused.  _Not you too, Orion._ His face then fell as he said, “I wish Antares was that cute.”

Atlas shrugged, trying to look as indifferent as possible. “It was simply the responsible thing to do.”

“Aww. You do care.” Jaxon clapped his hands together and faked a sniffle. “She even hugged you! I was so touched. Aren’t you moved, big guy?”

Atlas looked at him deadpan. He was, but like hell he was going to admit it to Jaxon. “On the brink of tears. Can we get moving now? We’re going to be late.”

They started walking towards the cinema building, exchanging quips. Atlas smiled absentmindedly at the jokes, but his mind was elsewhere. It had started to wander, filled with possibilities he didn’t even consider before.

_A starship pilot, huh? It may not be such a bad idea after all._


End file.
